


Cursed!

by buzzbuzz34



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Curses, Friendship, Superstition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 20:33:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12395712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzbuzz34/pseuds/buzzbuzz34
Summary: I read an answer provided by the creators of the Arcana over at thearcanagame.tumblr.com which said that Portia was the most superstitious of the main six characters, and decided to write the shenanigans that ensue when she discovers that my Apprentice, Maevyn, had broken a mirror.  Bad luck and hilarity to follow.





	Cursed!

Maevyn looked at the wall, a scowl on their face as they pondered.  Then they shook their head.  It couldn’t stay there.

The room Nadia had provided for them was certainly opulent and overwhelmingly comfortable, but it also featured a large mirror across from the window that kept worrying Maevyn, causing them to feel watched.  Maybe it was just their recent escapade into _that_ wing of the palace into _that_ particular room or _that_ thing that had called to them while they were there… regardless, they needed to move the mirror.  Just to be safe.

It was large, with an ornate golden frame that made it far heavier than Maevyn thought.  They managed to tug it off its hangings, but barely made it two steps before the entire thing slipped out of their hands and fell to the floor.

Oh no.

Time slowed down as the glass carefully shattered in the most agonizing way imaginable, splintering off in a thousand different directions.  The frame itself appeared undamaged, but the mirror was demolished.

Maevyn let out a heavy sigh, shaking their head.  When they opened their eyes to reexamine the disaster, they noticed a redhead watching from the door. 

“Portia, please don’t tell the Countess.  Or at least make the story sound better than it actually was.”

“You broke a mirror!”  She cried as she stepped into the room, her mouth still agape.

“I know, I’m so sorry.  I’ll pay back whatever it cost, I promise…”  How exactly they would afford that, they didn’t know.  Any item in that bedroom surely cost more gold than they’d ever seen in their life.

“No, no, no, I mean… you broke a _mirror_.”

“Can you find a broom or something so we can get this cleaned up?”

Portia stood completely still, watching Maevyn with a horrified eye.  

“Don’t you know breaking a mirror is bad luck?”  She exclaimed, her face now as red as her hair.

Maevyn gestured with her hand to bat the superstition away.  “That’s just a story.  Breaking a mirror doesn’t bring bad luck.”

“Seven years!  You’re cursed for seven years!”

“Portia, Portia, please…”  Maevyn stepped across the broken glass to take Portia’s hands in their own.  “It’s going to be okay.  I just need to get this cleaned up and then-”

Before they could finish their sentence, a loud thud interrupted the conversation and caused both interlocutors to scream.

The source of the disturbance was nothing other than Maevyn’s bag slipping off the table and clattering to the floor.  Several items had spilled out all across the room.

Maevyn fell to their knees to pick up the fallen items with Portia following suit, before she froze and let out a quiet yelp.

The apprentice turned back to take whatever it was that Portia had acquired, but she was still mortified and barely able to hand it over.

It was one of the tarot cards.  Huh. 

With a shrug, Maevyn was about to place it back with its deck before Portia interrupted.

“That was the Death card!”

They flipped it over; yup, Death.

“So?”

“ _Death_?  Seriously?  How do you not realize you’re cursed now?  Seven years of bad luck for breaking that mirror!”  Portia was practically shaking with fear.

“The Death card doesn’t always mean death in the way we think it.  It can be rebirth, or the end of one period of your life.  Besides, it just fell out of my bag, it’s not a big deal.”

Portia shook her head, realizing that she wasn’t going to convince Maevyn.  Fate would prove itself soon enough.

At the apprentice’s behest, Portia acquired two brooms and the pair cleaned up the broken glass.  Of course, when Maevyn cut themselves on a shard, Portia couldn’t help but point out that it was yet another sign of the curse.  Maevyn, of course, still didn’t believe it.

Magic was one thing.  Superstitions?  Fake.  All of them. 

Right?

But as they then proceeded down the stairs, discreetly sneaking around to dispose of the broken pieces, Maevyn slipped and fell.  And they didn’t just fall down a couple steps.  They fell down the entire stairwell, their bag of mirror bits cascading around them in a sparkling spectacle. 

“Are you alright?”  Portia said hurriedly as she rushed to Maevyn’s side. 

“I’m cursed!”

“I told you!”

“I broke a mirror and now I’m cursed!”

They both started screaming now, yelling in horror and confusion. 

“Seven years!  How am I supposed to live like this for seven years?  What am I going to do?”

As Maevyn held their head in their hands and ignored the mess and noise that they’d made, Portia wrapped an arm around them and held them gently. 

“You’re all magic-y, right?  Surely there’s some counterspell that can fix this?”

“I don’t know!”

In the midst of their debacle, neither saw a person step closer.

“Is there something wrong here?”  The guard asked, prompting the cursed one and the handmaiden to scream again.

“Everything’s fine,” Maevyn snapped and began to stand, before slipping on a shard of glass and crashing back down again.

“It’s not fine, they’re cursed!”  Portia yelled.  “They’re cursed, you hear me?”

The guard was terribly confused, and rightfully so.  In the end, they decided it just wasn’t worth getting involved.

“Alright, carry on then.”

Portia carefully helped Maevyn stand and led them off of the stairwell before they could fall again. 

“Hey, let’s go get some ice for you.  You bumped your head pretty bad there,” she offered, lacing her arm through Maevyn’s and heading toward the kitchen.  “You can ask your master if there’s anything to be done about this curse whenever you talk to him next, and then everything will be okay, right?”  The tone of her voice hardly inspired confidence.

“Yeah, right, totally.  Nothing we can do right now except get me some ice and lock me back in my room before anything else bad happens.”

“Exactly.”

The pair stepped into the bustling kitchen, but immediately noticed the structure on either side of the door.

Leading up to the high ceiling was a ladder, with its legs spread out so that its peak arched above the doorway. 

They’d just walked underneath a ladder.

As realization dawned on them, their eyes met and they both cried out in horror.

“We’re cursed!”


End file.
